Drew Thorpe will have Tommy John surgery
In one year, from unhittable Double-A hurler to summer-long spectator
Drew Thorpe, centerpiece of the Dylan Cease trade of almost one year ago to the day, will be succumbing to Tommy John surgery and will miss all of 2025.
The White Sox made the announcement on Saturday morning, and tabbed Texas Rangers team physician and TJS specialist Dr. Keith Meister for the procedure, which should be done by the end of the month.
Although expectations were remarkably low for Thorpe in 2025 given his injury woes and middling fastball, there’s no avoiding the fact that his loss is a brutal blow to a mediocre pitching staff.
Thorpe last threw for the White Sox in official play last July 31, and was shut down for the season with an elbow flexor strain shortly thereafter. In September, bone spur surgery on his elbow was performed, ideally to clear out minor damage and have Thorpe fully recovered and be on track for Opening Day. At SoxFest this January, news broke that Thorpe was not proceeding well with his rehab and needed a cortisone shot(s) to get through.
The star prospect didn’t pitch at all this spring, at least until a back-fields game this past Thursday that was cut short due to elbow discomfort.
Thorpe’s pedigree as a New York Yankees draft pick and 2023 Minor League Pitcher of the Year bore out a year ago, when the righty broke camp with Double-A Birmingham and decimated the Southern League for the first half of the season: 11 starts, 7-1 record, 1.33 ERA, 0.867 WHIP, and just nine earned runs in 60 innings. He made the jump directly to the majors and had his first start at Seattle on June 11. Although his season numbers (5.48 ERA over 44 1⁄3 innings) don’t look great, he was stellar over his first seven stars (just one poor outing, carrying a 3.03 ERA overall).
However, even at its best Thorpe’s FIP was always high, and injury concerns started to surface with two catastrophic starts to end July, leading to 14 earned runs in 5 2⁄3 innings and then the shutdown of his season.
Despite improved depth among starters in the organization, very little of that depth will surface in the majors in 2025 — and the loss of Thorpe, at least penciled in as a South Side starter, only worsens the situation. Chicago is left with Sean Burke, Davis Martin, Martín Pérez, Shane Smith and Jonathan Cannon in the rotation, with little reliable talent laboring down at Triple-A Charlotte (Nick Nastrini, Jake Eder and the like). And really, let’s be honest here, there’s little reliable talent laboring in the South Side rotation, either.
This spring has been disastrous for White Sox pitching health, as in addition to Thorpe fellow starters Ky Bush and Juan Carela, as well as reliever Prelander Berroa, all have succumbed to elbow ligament injuries necessitating TJS. If you count calendar year 2025, the TJSs number five, as 2024 second-rounder Blake Larson arrived in camp all braced up after having the surgery in January.
And if you thought the White Sox offense was going to help pick up the slack after a MLB third-worst ever offensive WAR performance in 2024, well those prospects were dealt a blow on Saturday morning as well, with Brandon Drury’s sore thumb blossoming overnight into a fracture. While Drury was a nonrostered (40-man) player, his standout Cactus League made him a shoo-in to break camp with the big club.